[Heeplist] Some Great New Music

[Jay Pearson]

Hey Dave, I concur quite strongly on both these albums. Elefante's album is my #1 album of the year so far. I'll add two more, and those are the new Renaissance album (which was recorded before Michael Dunford died) and the new Spocks Beard album (with Ted Leonard of Enchant singing). Both are very strong and compare favorably with their best albums. Renaissance's keyboardist sounds nothing like John Tout, their amazing pianist of the 70s, but still sounds great.

Interestingly to me, Elefante, Renaissance and Spocks Beard were all fan-sponsored through Kickstarter or similar. I did both Elefante and Spocks Beard (as well as a couple of others) and I think this method really encourages the bands who do it to write what their hard core fan base really wants to hear.

PS - Did anyone know that John Wetton was once the bass player in Renaissance (around 71 or 72)?! I just learned that a few weeks ago.

Jay
sp - Black Sabbath - 13


________________________________
 From: Dave Crookham <crookham at peoplepc.com>

Now in the last week or 2 I've gotten 2 great CD's that will stay in my 
collection.

The first is The Black Star Riders _All Hell Breaks Loose_ CD. I got into 
Thin Lizzy late. For some reason when their material came out in my teens I 
just didn't get it. Some time in my 40's, I finally gave it another shot 
(mostly because of the Gary Moore connection) and fell in love with it. When 
Scott Gorham announced they were doing new material I kept an open mind but 
wondered what they could come up with. Now with my 50th birthday looming in 
a couple of weeks (hard to believe I met a lot of you guys in my early 
30's!), Gorham's Black Star Riders deliver an absolute gem. This CD shows if 
nothing at all that Gorham was a huge part of the Lizzy sound. This actually 
sounds like one of the best Thin Lizzy records period. Ricky Warwick's 
vocals are perfect for the group, and there is no filler here at all. Next 
to Jailbreak, it's as good as any Lizzy record first track to last.

The second is John Elefante's _On My Way To The Sun_.  The former Kansas 
singer works under his own name this time rather than Mastodon which he 
released the excellent 3 CD under 2 or 3 years ago.  If you didn't know 
better, at times you would think this was an Elefante fronted Kansas CD. 
Much of it sounds tempo wise like his Kansas work, but some of the musical 
interludes would fit right in with Leftoverture or earlier era Kansas. In 
fact Rich Williams and David Ragsdale of Kansas do make appearances. As a 
long time Kansas fan, this is like manna from heaven. It is far superior to 
Kansas offshoots like Native Window or Steve Walsh's solo stuff. Highly 
recommended for any Kansas fan. One warning: Elefante is primarily a 
Christian artist, and his lyrics are a bit more overtly Christian than Kerry 
Livgren's typical Kansas lyrics. Still a must buy.